Electronic data capture devices have recently gained popularity as an effective way to electronically capture and index data. For example, delivery services, retail stores, manufacturers and others commonly use such electronic devices to partially or completely replace data entry on conventional paper forms, so that data may be stored electronically, saving space associated with records retention. To cite another example, many retail stores now use signature capture devices to process credit card transactions; a customer signs his or her name upon a paperless electronic capture device, in lieu of using a carbon form. A hardcopy receipt bearing a reproduced signature and purchase record is then printed for the customer, while the retail store retains only an electronic record of the transaction.
Most such electronic capture devices are designed to be relatively foolproof, e.g, such that entered data is automatically applied to the correct document, and little possibility exists for transposing signatures or data to the wrong transaction. In the case of capture devices controlled as one element of a multiple step process (e.g., credit card processing), error is typically controlled by processing only one transaction at a time and accepting a customer signature only at a specific time in the process so that the signature is unambiguously associated with the proper transactional data. Similarly, in the case of portable devices used in inventory tracking and similar applications, capture devices are frequently designed to be used with only one form at a time.
While generally useful for their intended purposes, these electronic devices (and many others intended to electronically replace conventional forms-processing practices) often suffer from being somewhat rigid, for example, in not permitting editing of entered data. Further, devices required to internally store electronic data (e.g., portable devices) must frequently contain substantial internal memory, making such devices costly and heavy. In many conventional paper processing applications, it is generally desired to allow a user to move around and concurrently handle multiple forms, as one might do while completing standard hardcopy forms.
Recently, U.S. Pat. No. 5,629,499 (the "'499 Patent") has provided a partial solution to the problem of concurrent processing of multiple paper pages or forms, via that patent's disclosure of a multiple page, portable, digitizing clipboard. Using the clipboard, a user can actually write upon multiple, stacked pieces of paper, with a digitizer beneath the paper capturing pen stroke information; a user interface is utilized to switch a displayed indication of the current page between the multiple pages, and captured electronic data is thereby associated with the selected page. Thus, a user can simultaneously enter data on several hardcopy pages, all stacked upon the clipboard, while the clipboard simultaneously and automatically also creates electronic information corresponding to pen strokes for archiving or recreating each hardcopy page.
Unfortunately, the principal embodiment shown by the '499 Patent requires a user to correctly and timely switch definition of the current page so that the electronic information is associated with the proper page. Failure to properly switch page definition could potentially result in information being associated with the wrong page; if the user did not properly switch page definition, then data intended for different pages might be incorrectly associated with a single page, in a spatially overlapping manner. The '499 Patent also does not teach any way of editing entered data.
A definite need exists for a system for a mechanism for significantly reducing the impact of errors caused by data transposed between multiple forms. A definite need also exists for a system that provides for ready editing of entered electronic data. Ideally, such a system should be usable not only with handwriting capture devices, such as those referred to above, but should be applicable to a broad range of devices and applications that create data representing graphics or spatial coordinates. The present invention solves these needs and provides further related advantages.